1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to both water harvesting systems and to the scaling up of continuously supplied clay water filtration systems, and involves integrating a ceramic water filtration arrangement with water storage systems supplied with rainwater, surface water, and/or groundwater.
2. Description of Related Art
Water harvesting systems are used worldwide. Gray water systems, for example, capture run off from gutters and the like. Some systems rely on placing barrels or other containers in the open to capture rainwater.
Various documents presently exist that describe arrangements relating to rainwater collection. The ATOPIA RESEARCH Inc. document titled Pitch Africa: A Project by ATOPIA Research (September 2008), for example, discloses a network of artificial watersheds and aquifers and mentions the use of four different scales of rainwater capturing devices, including a small single container cistern, a larger two container cistern, a matrix of containers under a street soccer tournament venue, and a full rainwater harvesting soccer field.
The ATOPIA RESEARCH Inc. document titled PITCH—AFRICA LOG 2.1, CISTERN—X (January-June 2009) describes a single twenty foot long shipping container, a lightweight hinged frame to form a rainwater harvesting hood, and a textile envelope.
The ATOPIA RESEARCH Inc. document titled PITCH—AFRICA LOG 2.2, CISTERNS THAT DO OTHER THINGS (January-June 2009) describes two twenty foot long shipping containers that combine to store a minimum of 60,000 liters of water annually.
The ATOPIA RESEARCH Inc. document titled PITCH—AFRICA LOG 2.3, STREET SOCCER VENUE (January-June 2009) describes an arrangement for using the single container cistern (Log 2.1), the two-container cistern (Log 2.2), and a matrix of containers under a street soccer tournament venue and a full size soccer field.
The ATOPIA RESEARCH Inc. document titled PITCH—AFRICA LOG 3, 3.2 SPECIAL CONTAINERS (April-June) describes various types of specially fitted out shipping containers that make possible the provision of services in areas without basic amenities.
The ATOPIA RESEARCH Inc. document titled PITCH—AFRICA LOG 3, 3.2 FURNITURE (April-June) describes a modular system of tables and stools using components with certain geometric configurations.
Clay water filters were first introduced in 1827 by a London pottery merchant and popularized in 1835, when Queen Victoria commissioned production of water purifiers with clay filter elements for bacterial removal for the Royal household following Prince Albert's death from typhoid. In the 1980s, USAID and the IADB, in order to provide appropriate technology for developing nations, financed a factory in Ecuador to produce filters, although the project was abandoned due to insufficient demand. The Potters for Peace organization, collaborating with the WHO, has popularized further development of this technology, and has encouraged access to this technology through an Open Source Manufacturing model. Clay water filter (CWF) technology has been cited by the United Nations' Appropriate Technology Handbook, and hundreds of thousands of filters have been distributed worldwide by organizations such as the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, Plan International, Project Concern International, Oxfam, and USAID. Scientists at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Tulane, the University of Colorado, and the University of North Carolina have also tested CWF technology.
Clay (or ceramic) water filtration is now used in many parts of the developing world to filter water. Fabrication of clay water filters involves mixing clay and sawdust in certain proportions and forming the mixture into the shape of pot using a press or a potter's wheel or by hand molding. When the pot is fired, the sawdust disintegrates, leaving pores within the clay. The pot is dipped in a solution of colloidal silver that controls the growth of bacteria within the pores. When water is filtered through these pots, bacteria and pathogens, including E. coli, are trapped within the pores and removed from the water. The filtration capacity of these pots, however, has been limited by the strength of the clay and by the water pressure on that clay when the pot is filled and filtering. This has meant that these filters work as individual filters and are limited in filtering capacity to about 30 liters per day.